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Tinder’s guardian firm, Match Group Inc, plans to chop 6% of its world workforce amid a continued droop in customers paying for its hottest relationship app.
The relationship app big, which additionally owns Hinge, Plenty of Fish and OKCupid, has revealed an 8% fall within the variety of paying Tinder customers.
It mentioned job cuts would largely stem from shutting down its live-streaming app Hakuna and eradicating live-streaming options accessible in a few of its relationship apps.
Match has now reported declines in Tinder subscriber numbers for a number of consecutive quarters – although it stays the world’s hottest relationship app, and the most recent dip was lower than some buyers anticipated.
The firm mentioned in a letter to shareholders on Tuesday that its newest fall in subscribers was an “improvement” on a 9% dip within the earlier quarter.
Tinder is more and more being challenged by rival relationship apps equivalent to Bumble, which reported a rise in its variety of paying customers final quarter.
“Despite proudly owning a number of the best-known manufacturers within the relationship market, Match Group has been fighting intense competitors,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“A scarcity of innovation appears to be a key bugbear and activists are placing stress on the corporate to give you some new concepts to drive up consumer numbers.”
Some Match Group investors have called on the company to improve its performance and deliver more value for shareholders – for whom the company’s stock price has been trading down at more than 60% on its 2021 peak.
Match Group told shareholders in its letter that Tinder’s growth had previously been driven by its “partaking and enjoyable consumer expertise” – key to which has been the convenience of swiping left or right on potential matches.
But it said that what users want from dating apps has since changed.
“Sentiment has shifted as customers search a lower-pressure expertise with larger authenticity that extra simply delivers desired connections,” it mentioned.
“We anticipate Tinder to start testing new decrease stress types of discovery within the coming quarters, together with extra methods for customers to make use of Tinder with associates.”
Tinder has recently rolled out new ways for people to meet people on the app – including letting friends and family members play matchmaker – and artificial intelligence (AI) features helping users pick the best images to use on their profiles.
Meanwhile, Mr Mould added that Tinder’s slowed decline in paying users, along with the growth of Hinge, presented a “glimmer of hope” for its parent company.
The number of people paying for the app – which Match says is “designed to be deleted” – has increased sharply, with the revenues it generates rising by 48% compared to the same period in 2023.
Tinder, comparatively, saw its direct revenue grow by just 1% across the same period.
Match Group’s share worth rose by practically 10% in after-hours buying and selling on Tuesday after reporting its outcomes.
